Exodus - Leon Uris [277]
The attack came with a cloudy dawn. The Jews had one hundred and sixty-seven men and women of fighting age on the battle line, in trenches, and behind rough barricades facing the Arab position. The children were hidden in the centermost building of the kibbutz. The defenders had no armament heavier than a single two-inch mortar.
A bugle blew. Arab Legion officers with drawn swords led the charge. The irregulars behind them poured over the open fields in a massed frontal assault calculated to overrun the kibbutz by sheer weight of numbers.
The Jews waited until the Arab force was within twenty yards, then on signal they cut loose with a tremendous volley. Arabs went down like mown wheat.
The impetus of the Arab charge carried forward a second, third, and fourth headlong wave. The Jews continued their disciplined fire, blasting each rush as the leaders’ feet touched kibbutz ground.
The field was littered with Arab dead and the wounded screamed, “We are brothers! Mercy, in the name of Allah!”
The rest scrambled back out of range and began a confused retreat. Kawukji had promised them easy victory and plunder! He had told them this bunch of Orthodox Jews would flee at the sight of them! They had not reckoned on such a fight. The Arab women on the outskirts of the battle began to flee too.
The Arab Legion officers herded the running irregulars together and stopped the retreat only by firing at them. The leaders reorganized their men for another rush at the kibbutz, but the irregulars’ hearts were no longer in their effort.
Inside Tirat Tsvi the Jews were in bad trouble. They did not have enough ammunition left to hold off another charge if Arabs came in strong and hard. Moreover, if the Arabs changed strategy and tried a slow attack with flanking movement the Jews could not contain it. They hastily organized a desperation tactic. Most of the ammunition was given to twenty sharpshooters. The rest dropped back to the children’s house and prepared for a last-ditch fight with bayonets, clubs, and bare hands. Through field glasses they watched the Arabs mass and saw that there were enough troops left to overrun the kibbutz.
The Arabs came over the field more slowly this time, with some of the Legion officers behind the troops forcing them on at gun point.
Suddenly the heavens opened up in an unexpected downpour. Within minutes the open field was turned into a deep and bogging mud. The Arab charge, instead of gaining momentum, began to wallow, just as the Canaanite chariots had done against Deborah.
As the first Legion officers reached the kibbutz, the sharpshooters picked them off. Kawukji’s noble “Forces of the Yarmuk” had had enough for the day.
Kawukji was in a rage over the Tirat Tsvi debacle. He had to have a victory quickly to save face. This time he decided to go after big game.
The road between Tel Aviv and Haifa was more important to the Yishuv from a purely strategic standpoint than the road to Jerusalem. If the Tel Aviv-Haifa line could be cut, the Arabs could sever the Jewish dispositions, splitting the Galilee away from the Sharon. There were Arab villages on the main highway which forced the Jews to use alternate interior roads to maintain transportation between the two cities. On one of the vital alternate roads was kibbutz Mishmar Haemek—the Guardpost of the Valley. Mishmar Haemek became Kawukji’s goal in the ambitious move to separate Tel Aviv from Haifa.
This time Kawukji determined not to repeat the mistakes of Tirat Tsvi. He massed more than a thousand men and moved them into the hills surrounding the kibbutz, together with ten 75mm. mountain guns.
With Mishmar Haemek ringed, Kawukji opened a brutal artillery barrage. The Jews had one machine gun with which to answer back.
After a day of the pounding, the British called a truce, entered the kibbutz, and advised the Jews to pull out. When they refused the British left, washing their hands of the affair. Kawukji learned from the